The present invention relates to fishing equipment. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus for spooling a trot-line into a compact and tangle free assembly in which the fish hook points are safely and securely retained away from the trot-line fisherman.
A trot-line consists of a set-line of any desired length along which at regularly spaced intervals are attached leader lines, each leader terminating with a hook. Normally, a single barbed fish hook is employed, but any type of hook is possible. For example, when fishing with the trot-line across a fresh water stream, a single barb hook might preferably be used. When fishing in salt water bays, a treble hook might be preferable.
Trot-line assemblies are very popular with avid fishermen because it offers the opportunity to fish from several baited hooks without requiring constant attention. The hooks can be baited and left until sometime later when the trot-line can be "run" to see if any fish have been caught. Due to the very nature of the construction of a trot-line, namely, the presence of the fish hooks distributed along the length of the set-line, the reeling-in and storage of the device almost always results in a tangled mesh unless considerable effort is given to the handling of the hooks as encountered doing the reeling-in process.
There have been many attempts in the prior art to provide a spooling apparatus for a trot-line, all the way from winding the entire assembly, set-line, leaders and hooks onto a spool where the hooks are simply woven into the bundle of set-line, to a device such as that shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 5 illustrates a piece of PVC pipe which has cut therein a V-shaped notch opening with a longitudinal slot running from the opening along the length of the pipe. As each hook is encountered, the barbed end of the hook is inserted into the opening in the PVC pipe and moved down the slot so that the barbed end of the hook is captured within the interior of the PVC pipe. The remainder of the set-line and leaders are then left to hang loose from the PVC pipe. This arrangement, however, does not solve the problem of tangling of the set-line, nor does it provide a compact unit, and is therefore subject to snagging and entanglement with other equipment within a fishermen's fishing box, etc. Additionally, the loosely hanging set-line and leaders, when subjected to entanglement with other devices can cause the fish hooks to be pulled from within the slot and therefore become very dangerous for possible injury to any one who comes in contact with the carrying assembly.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a non-tangling spooling apparatus which provides a compact unit for safely and securely holding the barbed ends of the fish hooks away from contact with the user of the trot-line. It would also be advantageous to provide a spooling apparatus which permits the fisherman to exert a pulling force on the trot-line to propel, for example, a fishing boat along the trot-line as the set-line is reeled in.